What a way to react to the credit crunch!

While local people and businesses are feeling the pinch, Labour in Oxford decides it's time to hit them with higher taxes.

In the first hit, as hard working people struggle with their bills, they want to raise council tax by a full five per cent next year, and every year after. In the second hit, as retail suffers from the downturn, they want to increase car parking charges by 15 per cent.

Labour seems not to realise that a council should be helping local people and businesses out of recession, not kicking them while they are down.

Everyone knows that Oxford's council tax is one of the highest in the country – and that that tax is regressive and unfair.

The sooner this unfair tax is replaced with a system related to people's ability to pay, the better.

If we can't axe the tax, let's do what we can to help people and businesses in these hard times, rather than adding to the troubles.

STEPHEN BROWN, Oxford City Councillor, Walton Street, Oxford